The present invention relates to a carton sealing machine, which provides the possibility of controlling the immediate opening of the sealing area during working.
There are known those carton sealing machines which on a support base provide a pair of conveying belts able to enage the carton sides in order to control the advancement of the cartons along said base and through a conveniently equipped sealing area. This latter comprises more precisely an upper sealing head able to engage the carton top to apply a strip of adhesive sealing tape, as well as a lower sealing unit able to engage the carton bottom.
Particularly there are known those sealing machines, that, in order to operate on cartons of any width and height, provision is made at the commencement of the work for the conveying belts and the upper sealing head to be displaced from respective rest positions in which the belts are separated from each other and the upper sealing head is in its turn very close to the carton support base.
In the machines of this kind the operative cycle substantially provides that the introduction of a carton on the above mentioned support base causes, by means of suitable sensors, firstly the raising of the upper sealing head to a height corresponding to that of the carton and then the mutual approaching of the conveying belts towards each other up to the conveying engagement of the conveyor belts with the carton sides. The carton can thus advance through the sealing area, while receiving the sealing adhesive tapes, and then to leave the machine sealed. At that time, always by means of suitable sensors, the machine controls the return of the conveyor belts and the upper sealing head to its rest position and the stopping as well of the rotational movement of the belts.
Even if the working of such machines is usually perfect, it can however happen that a possibly deformed or badly disposed carton becomes locked or jammed inside the sealing area, for example by entangling with its upper flap among the various members of the sealing head. In such case there occurs a machine jamming, which requires the operator intervention.
This latter presents however many difficulties, as the conveying belts and the upper sealing head are substantially "closed" around the cartons, thereby making it complicated for someone and perhaps also dangerous (because of the movement of the belts) to execute manual interventions to set the locked carton properly or to extract it.
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a carton sealing machine which has suitable control means to permit the immediate opening of the sealing area in case of carton jamming or other similar difficulty.
According to the invention such an object is reached by means of a machine provided with a control member for causing the immediate displacement of the conveying belts into a position position of maximum mutual removal and of the upper sealing head into a position of maximum raising with respect to the carton support base.
By operating said control member it is thus possible to cause the immediate "opening" of the sealing area, with consequent possibility of easy, efficient and sure manual intervention with respect to the jammed carton for the extraction thereof.
If desired, it is also possible to have the same control member also to stop the rotational movement of the belts, in order to improve the safety conditions of the machine.
An embodiment of the present invention is illustrated for better clarity in the enclosed drawings, in which: